Participants
Everyone in the record. Attendance, names and movers follow the draft minutes. The dialogue file names only some members; four present members (Ruggeri, Popescu, Hart, Gallagher) carry no rows of their own, and its labels disagree with the minutes on several movers (see flag 7).
| Name | Role | Participation |
|---|
| Arlene Hawkins | Chair (Claremont) | Presides; moves the nonpublic session (0:02:37); seconds the seal motion herself (0:04:45); presents the policy subcommittee's policies; asks for a June record of transfers and encumbrances (0:18:24); moves the HR-director contract delegation (0:21:08). |
| Rocco Ruggeri | Vice chair (Unity) | Present (minutes). Minutes: moved the agenda, the January 11 minutes and the return to public session; seconded the nonpublic motion, the HR motion and the AC motion. No row carries his name; at 0:26:43 Kelly Simpson settles a contested second with “We'll go with Rocco.” on a second the dialogue file labels Sprague. |
| Marjorie Erickson | Member (Unity) | Absent (minutes). |
| Shannon Popescu | Member (Unity) | Present (minutes). Minutes: seconded policy ACN. Not identifiable on the recording. |
| Kelly Simpson | Member (Unity); policy subcommittee | Moves policy ACN (0:23:35) and DGA (0:38:23); objects to two-month gaps and to the meeting date change (0:50:10, 0:50:43). |
| Atonya Hart | Member (Unity); superintendent evaluation subcommittee chair (agenda) | Present (minutes). Minutes: seconded the agenda and the January 11 minutes; raised the concern that the board would lose touch with the new superintendent. The dialogue file gives that remark to Bonnie Miles (0:49:40) and leaves an evaluation-subcommittee voice unnamed (0:46:20). |
| Frank Sprague | Member (Claremont) | On student teachers (0:14:00); moves GBCD and EHB adoption (0:28:39, 0:29:46) and KF to second read, then withdraws it (0:31:21, 0:35:40); abstains on the HR motion (0:22:02). The dialogue file's Sprague label also covers motions the minutes give to Ruggeri. |
| Bonnie Miles | Member (Claremont) | Argues for monthly meetings; the chair sums it up as “all of us getting together builds a good solid board” (0:54:25). |
| Whitney Skillen | Member (Claremont); evaluation subcommittee | Reports the superintendent-evaluation plan (0:39:14); moves to adjourn (0:59:11). Minutes: moved AC to second read. |
| Candace Crawford | Member (Claremont); policy subcommittee | Moves to seal the nonpublic minutes “for three years” (0:04:41); volunteers for the student-services director search (0:20:44). |
| Jennifer Gallagher | Member (Claremont) | Arrived 6:56 p.m. (minutes). Minutes: seconded the return to public session, the KF withdrawal and DGA, and asked about the HR report's ACA item (unlabeled at 0:12:56). |
| Heather Whitney | Member (Claremont board chair) | Asks whether the paraprofessional training reached Unity (0:15:39). Minutes: seconded GBCD, EHB and KF; raised the viewpoint-bias objection to policy KF (unlabeled at 0:31:35); moved the bimonthly schedule (on tape the chair says she will make that motion, 0:49:16). |
| Noelle Kronberg | Board clerk | Reads the nonpublic roll (0:03:20); reads back the meeting-date motion (0:55:36). Signs the minutes. |
| Chris Pratt | Interim Superintendent | Superintendent's report (0:05:36): “I think my marks one month” (0:10:13). |
| Mary Henry | Business Administrator | Year-to-date SAU budget (0:16:48); offers monthly written financials in off months (0:53:44). |
Agenda
The posted agenda, the time each item was taken up, and its disposition per the recording and the draft minutes. Votes were voice votes except the three roll calls around the nonpublic session; no tally was announced for any vote.
| Taken up | Item | Agenda text / disposition |
|---|
| 0:00:02 | I. Call to order and Pledge | 6:30 p.m. |
| 0:00:31 | II. Roll call | About ten answers, none tied to a name in the transcript. Minutes: eleven present, Erickson absent, Gallagher arriving 6:56. |
| 0:01:03 | Agenda amendments and approval | Chair adds policy DGA, Authorized Signatures, as item 3f, a first read. Approved by voice vote. Minutes: moved Ruggeri, seconded Hart; on tape the motion comes from the voice labeled Sprague and the chair says “I'll second it” (0:02:10). |
| 0:02:10 | Minutes of January 11, 2024 | Approved as presented by voice vote (0:02:37). Minutes: moved Ruggeri, seconded Hart. |
| 0:02:37 | Citizens' comments | None; the chair notes no members of the public present. |
| 0:02:37 | III. Nonpublic session (agenda: “RSA 92-A:3, I and II”) | The chair moves it aloud as “RSA 92-3. No. 92-A colon 328 and see”; roll call, all present yes (minutes). Return to public moved and roll-called on tape at 0:03:52, sixteen recording seconds later; minutes: 7:30 p.m., moved Ruggeri, seconded Gallagher. Seal: Crawford moves three years (0:04:41), chair seconds; roll call includes one audible No (0:05:09). See flags 1 and 2. |
| 0:05:24 | IV. Superintendent report | Monthly department reports; questions from members. |
| 0:16:29 | V.1 Budget update: YTD expenditures | Discussion only. |
| 0:19:46 | V.2 Personnel update | (a) Director of Student Services search: Crawford is the board representative; interviews next week. (b) Business office position: nothing to report. (c) Other: motion to authorize the superintendent to negotiate and contract with the HR director at market rates (0:21:08); passed, Sprague abstaining (0:22:02). Minutes list ten in favor by name. |
| 0:22:12 | V.3a ACN Nursing Mothers Accommodation (second read/adoption) | Adopted (0:23:49). Moved Simpson; on tape the chair seconds (0:23:44), minutes say Popescu. |
| 0:24:23 | V.3b AC Non-Discrimination (first read) | Title shortened and district language removed; moved to second read as amended (0:26:47). Minutes: moved Skillen, seconded Ruggeri. |
| 0:26:47 | V.3c GBCD Background Investigation and Criminal History Records Check (first read) | Adopted at first reading (0:28:45); the chair first announces it as “Moving this to second reading” and then “Oh, we adopted it” (0:28:55). See flag 5. |
| 0:29:03 | V.3d EHB Data Records Retention (first read) | Adopted at first reading (0:29:52). |
| 0:29:52 | V.3e KF Use of School Buildings and Facilities (first read) | Motion to move to second read (0:31:21); objections on viewpoint bias and because the SAU owns no buildings; motion withdrawn by vote (0:36:01); the board suggests the member districts consider it. |
| 0:37:43 | V.3f DGA Authorized Signatures (added tonight; first read) | Adopted at first reading (0:38:38). Minutes: moved Simpson, seconded Gallagher. |
| 0:39:13 | V.4 Superintendent evaluation subcommittee | Discussion: Skillen reports the condensed 2024 evaluation plan. |
| 0:48:35 | V.5 SAU meeting dates, February to July 2024 | Motion to meet every other month (minutes: moved Whitney, seconded Crawford); voice vote, passed (0:56:09); next meeting April 11. |
| 0:56:09 | VI. Future dates and agenda items | Voting day March 12; board retreat; April policies (ACAC Title IX, EHAB, DB). |
| 0:57:41 | VII. Other business | NHSBA webinars, including Right-to-Know training (0:58:28). |
| 0:59:11 | VIII. Adjournment | Moved Skillen; minutes: 8:24 p.m. |
Discussion timeline
Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/15580 SAU6021524.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording. After 0:03:36 recording positions are not clock times, because the nonpublic session is cut out. Quotations are the transcript as it stands, including its errors.
Chronological topics with what was said. Hover or focus a cell to expand it.
| Time | Topic | What was said | Flags |
|---|
| 0:02:37 | Motion to enter nonpublic | “I'd like to move that the board now go into a nonpublic session under RSA 92-3. No. 92-A colon 328 and see I move, I make that motion.” The clerk reads the roll (0:03:20); the chair: “we're going to go into nonpublic session, into the classroom, diagonally located from us” (0:03:36). | MED |
| 0:03:52 | Return to public; sealing | “A motion to return to public session.” Roll call. Crawford: “I'll make a motion to seal the minutes for three years.” The chair: “I'll second.” Roll call, with the transcript rendering one answer 21. No. (0:05:09). No tally, no reason for sealing, and no finding is stated. | HIGH OBS |
| 0:05:36 | Superintendent's report | Job fairs and an in-house job fair, substitute onboarding, a reading-intervention pilot (0:07:10); “Staffing is special. Ed continues to be a challenge” (0:07:42); network switches through E-Rate and staff laptops bought with ESSER; a K-2 math diagnostic and draft K-5 report-card standards (0:08:57); a SWOT exercise with administrators (0:10:49). | |
| 0:11:40 | Questions on the report | Keene State is not holding a job fair (0:11:52); the paraprofessional training was a consultant's full-day session (0:12:18); the ACA bullet is the nondiscrimination policy, not health insurance (0:13:15); student teachers are welcome (0:14:11); the January 23 paraprofessional training was not offered to Unity because the days differed (0:15:44). | |
| 0:16:48 | SAU budget to date | Henry: about $122,952 left (the transcript splits the figure as “22,000. $952 left in our budget”); health insurance was over-estimated; software moved to a grant for a year (0:17:12). | |
| 0:18:24 | Transfers and encumbrances | The chair asks that “at the last saw meeting in June that the board be provided with the record of transfers. The rationale for those transfers and for incumbent incumbent encumbered items, so that the board can approve and close them”. | POS |
| 0:20:11 | Student services director search | Crawford volunteers as the board's representative (0:20:44); interviews to start the next week (0:21:02). | |
| 0:21:08 | HR director contract | The chair: “I would like to bring forth a motion to authorize the superintendent to negotiate and enter into a contract with the HR human Resources director to be consistent with prevailing market rates for that position.” Passed; Sprague: “I abstained.” (0:22:02). | OBS |
| 0:22:53 | Policy ACN (nursing mothers) | Second reading; the board's January change: “the nursing mother who's an hourly employee who paid during nursing periods and not required to make up time”. Adopted (0:23:49). | OBS POS |
| 0:24:23 | Policy AC (nondiscrimination) | Retitled because the SAU is “not required to have an anti-discrimination plan” at its level; Title IX and 504 coordinators named per the superintendent's input (0:25:22). Based on the NHSBA sample (0:26:03). | |
| 0:26:47 | Policy GBCD (background checks) | Student and school provisions struck because “the SA has no responsibility towards schools or students” (0:27:36). Adopted on its first reading. | OBS |
| 0:29:52 | Policy KF (use of buildings) | The superintendent may bring applications “to the SA School Board for final approval” (0:30:19). Objection (Whitney per the minutes): “anything that, you know, the board chooses a shield today can be used as a weapon tomorrow” (0:31:35). Sprague: the SAU “Doesn't have any buildings” (0:32:58). Motion withdrawn by vote (0:36:01). | |
| 0:37:43 | Policy DGA (authorized signatures) | “It's a new one. It's to give structure as to who should be signing documents”. A member: “I was absent for that” (the agenda amendment) (0:38:07). Adopted. | OBS |
| 0:39:14 | Superintendent evaluation plan | Skillen: “we're kind of starting from square one since we have a new superintendent”; a condensed one-time 2024 evaluation, then a July-to-June cycle with evaluations in May (0:40:52); departing members evaluate in February and “All of this needs to be written into policies and procedures” (0:41:49). Sprague: avoid members saying “I didn't observe this” (0:44:39). | |
| 0:48:35 | Every-other-month meetings | Chair: meet in February, April and June. Against: “Feel as though we lose touch with our superintendent” (0:49:40); Simpson: “Now you want to go two months” after the policy push (0:50:10). Henry offers monthly written financials (0:53:44). Passed with no end date (0:55:52). | |
| 0:58:28 | Right-to-Know training | The chair lists an NHSBA webinar on “the right to know law, which is extremely important”; Whitney proposes a watch party (0:58:59). | |
Items flagged for review
These flags are a reviewer's aid, not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each names the rule it rests on, as that rule read on February 15, 2024. Verify against the recording and the primary sources before relying on any of them.
HIGH Nonpublic minutes sealed with no stated finding, and the minutes leave the seal motion blank
Minutes of a nonpublic session must be disclosed within 72 hours unless, “by recorded vote of 2/3 of the members present taken in public session, it is determined that divulgence of the information likely would affect adversely the reputation of any person other than a member of the public body itself, or render the proposed action ineffective, or pertain to terrorism” (RSA 91-A:3, III, statute text). On the recording (0:04:41 to 0:05:15) Crawford moves only “to seal the minutes for three years”, the chair seconds, and the clerk takes a roll call; no ground or determination is stated, and no tally is announced. The draft minutes record the vote as “Makes a motion to seal the minutes for , seconds” (minutes text), with the mover, the seconder and the duration left blank, and as “all present voting yes” (minutes text), while the transcript carries one No at 0:05:09. RSA 91-A:2, II separately requires the minutes to record who made and seconded each motion. The vote cleared two-thirds on either count, so the defect is the missing determination and the defective record of the vote, not the margin. The minutes give the session's grounds as RSA 91-A:3, II(a) and II(c) in substance (see flag 2), which could support a reputation finding, but the statute requires the determination itself, made in public.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, III (sealing requires a 2/3 recorded vote with a determination; text in force from Oct. 3, 2023); RSA 91-A:2, II (movers and seconders recorded in minutes); draft minutes 2.15.24
MEDIUM The nonpublic motion cites a chapter that does not exist and a paragraph with no exemptions
RSA 91-A:3, I(b) requires a motion to enter nonpublic session to “state on its face the specific exemption under paragraph II” (statute text). The agenda heads the item “Non-Public Meeting Session RSA 92-A:3, I and II” (agenda text), the chair states it aloud as “RSA 92-3. No. 92-A colon 328 and see” at 0:02:37, and the draft minutes record the motion as “under RSA 92-A:3, I(a) and II(c)” (minutes text). There is no RSA chapter 92-A; chapter 92 concerns tenure and oath of office. Paragraph I of RSA 91-A:3 contains no exemptions; the text the agenda prints under I. (a) (agenda text) is the wording of II(a), employee dismissal, promotion, compensation or discipline. The intended grounds, II(a) and II(c), are recoverable from the agenda's quoted text, which is why this is MEDIUM rather than HIGH. This is the third SAU 6 agenda in a row to carry the phantom chapter (12/14/23, 1/11/24, 2/15/24); the April 11, 2024 paperwork corrects it.
Sources: RSA 91-A:3, I(b) and II (motion must state the paragraph II exemption); RSA Title VI table of contents (no chapter 92-A); agenda
MEDIUM Draft minutes reached the public share three and a half months after the meeting
RSA 91-A:2, II requires minutes to be open to public inspection within five business days, which for this Thursday meeting (with Washington's Birthday, a legal holiday under RSA 288:1, on February 19) was February 23, 2024. The only copy located is a draft filed in the next meeting's packet folder, 3. SAU 4.11.24; Drive records both that folder and the file as created on May 29, 2024, seven weeks after the April 11 meeting it belongs to, so its modification time rescues nothing. The search was two-stage, as the project's rule for SAU 6 requires: this meeting's own folder 2. SAU 2.15.24 holds the January 11 draft but not this meeting's, and the minutes were found in the later folder. Severity follows the project's rule for late records: the minutes exist and the meeting was noticed and packeted, and a share date shows online availability rather than whether a copy could be inspected at the SAU office, so MEDIUM rather than HIGH. No approved version has been located.
Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes within 5 business days); 2.15.24 Draft SAU6 School Board Minutes (Drive metadata read 2026-10-03)
OBSERVATION The HR director's pay was delegated to the superintendent
At 0:21:08 the board authorized the interim superintendent “to negotiate and enter into a contract with the HR human Resources director to be consistent with prevailing market rates”. The SAU board “shall fix the salaries of all school administrative unit personnel” (RSA 194-C:5, III, statute text). A motion that sets a market-rate standard and leaves the figure to the superintendent may or may not be the board fixing the salary; the statute does not address delegation, and the record does not show whether the resulting contract came back to the board. The same board delegated the interim superintendent's own contract terms to the chair and counsel on January 11. The contract, or a later vote ratifying it, would settle whether the board fixed the figure.
Sources: RSA 194-C:5, III (SAU board fixes salaries; 1996, 298:3, never amended)
OBSERVATION Three policies noticed as first reads were adopted on first reading, one added to the agenda that night
The agenda lists GBCD, EHB and KF as “(First Read)” (agenda text); DGA was added by the chair at the start of the meeting (0:01:03), and one member said “I was absent for that” (0:38:07) when it came up. GBCD, EHB and DGA were each adopted outright on first reading; the chair first announced GBCD as moving to second reading and then corrected herself, “Oh, we adopted it” (0:28:55). State law does not prescribe a two-reading process for SAU policies, and this page has not located an SAU 6 policy that does, so no rule is cited. The point is notice: members of the public reading the agenda were told these were first reads, and the AC and ACN policies on the same agenda followed the two-reading course.
Sources: agenda; DGA first-read draft
OBSERVATION The nursing-mothers policy cites a state law not yet in force
Policy ACN, adopted at 0:23:49, gives its legal reference as “RSA 275:78-83” (policy text). Those sections were enacted by 2023 N.H. Laws ch. 191 (HB 358) with an effective date of July 1, 2025; on February 15, 2024 they were not in force. The binding source then was the federal PUMP Act, 29 U.S.C. §218d, in force since December 29, 2022, which requires reasonable break time and a private place other than a bathroom for one year after birth. The policy meets those terms; only its citation is premature. Citing the federal provision would have given the policy a basis that was law on the day it was adopted.
Sources: RSA 275:78 (source note: 2023, 191:20, eff. July 1, 2025); 29 U.S.C. §218d (PUMP Act); policy ACN as presented
OBSERVATION The recording omits the nonpublic session, and minutes and transcript disagree on several movers
The chair leaves for the nonpublic session at 0:03:36 and the motion to return is at 0:03:52, sixteen recording seconds later. The draft minutes put the session at about 6:35 to 7:30 p.m. The arithmetic confirms the cut: 6:30 to the minuted 8:24 adjournment is 114 minutes; less 55 minutes of nonpublic session leaves 59 minutes of public meeting, against a recording of 0:59:24. Recording positions after the cut are therefore not clock times. Separately, the minutes and the dialogue file's speaker labels disagree on who moved or seconded several motions: the agenda, January 11 minutes and return-to-public motions (minutes: Ruggeri; transcript label: Sprague), the ACN second (minutes: Popescu; on tape the chair says “I'll second it”, 0:23:44), and the bimonthly-schedule motion (minutes: Whitney; on tape the chair says she will make it, 0:49:16). The dialogue file never labels Ruggeri, Popescu, Hart or Gallagher, and Simpson's “We'll go with Rocco.” (0:26:43) attaches Ruggeri's name to a second the file labels Sprague, so the file's labels are the likelier error; the chair's own words at 0:23:44 and 0:49:16 point the other way. The page follows the minutes and reports the conflicts.
Sources: draft minutes 2.15.24; RSA 91-A:2, II (movers and seconders recorded in minutes)
POSITIVE Paid nursing breaks for hourly staff, beyond the federal minimum
Policy ACN as adopted provides that “A nursing mother who is an hourly employee will be paid during nursing periods” (policy text), the change the board asked for in January (0:22:53). Federal law does not require it: an employer “shall not be required to compensate an employee receiving reasonable break time” unless other law requires it (29 U.S.C. §218d(b), statute text). The policy also guarantees at least three nursing periods a day and a private space other than a bathroom in each building.
Sources: 29 U.S.C. §218d(b) (break time need not be paid); policy ACN
POSITIVE The chair asked for board review of every budget transfer and encumbrance at year end
At 0:18:24 the chair asked that the June meeting receive “the record of transfers. The rationale for those transfers and for incumbent incumbent encumbered items, so that the board can approve and close them”, and Henry agreed. RSA 32:10's transfer rules are written for towns and districts; RSA 32:1 does not name school administrative units, so no statute requires an SAU board to see its transfers. Asking for the list, with reasons, before closing the year is a control beyond the minimum.
Sources: RSA 32:1 (application of the Municipal Budget Law); RSA 32:10 (transfers)
Appendix: source files
Official and public sources
Project files
Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.
Dialogue/15580 SAU6021524.mp4.CSV (460 attributed rows; the basis of this page)Input/Videos/15580 SAU6021524.mp4Input/Transcripts/15580 SAU6021524.mp4.jsonInput/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md (section 225)
Laws and rules cited on this page